Religion
One who embraces
Martin Sullivan
Disaster personal or national, when it falls upon us, always poses afresh the problem of evil, in one form or another. There is no solution to it, either in religion or philosophy, which puts our ques tioning to rout. The best we are offered is an approach or an atti tude which helps us to come to terms with it. There is some classic wrestling with the subject in
the Bible, but there is also, one
gem, little known or read, which is a searching tract for the times. It is tucked away between the prophecies of Nahum and Zephaniah and bears the title of its author Habakkuk about whom nothing is really known except the meaning of his name, one who embraces.'
Twenty-five hundred years ago, this man agonised over a desperate situation. His small country, the southern part of Palestine, then known as Judah, had seen its northern counterpart Israel conquered and occupied and now it stood alone against any marauder. He came, at length, a bitter, hasty, Godless, rapacious foe. As the writer contemplated the enemy, he described its people, "They come, all of them for violence; they gather captives as the sand, marching through the breadth of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs." The prophet's dilemma is clearly stated. He knows that his nation has fallen woefully short of its ideals, and leant more upon privilege than responsibility. He admits that the social evils of Judah deserve Divine chastisement. What is God up to, using as His instrument a nation which by its rapacity and its arrogant impiety was an infinitely worse offender? How could these Chaldeans, conquerers of Babylon, marching over the face of the earth with an unbridled savagery, be agents of God's purposes? With a deep and bitter cry Habakkuk, like Job after him, argues the case with God. "How long shall I cry and Thou wilt not hear? Have you less moral sense and judgment than I have? Thou that all of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look upon perverseness. Wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously?" As he tosses these questions about in his mind, the prophet suddenly comes to a decision. "I will stand me upon my watch, his prophetic watch tower," he says, "and will listen to hear what is said to me, and how shall answer."
With patience and in a spirit of humble acceptance, he awaits some message. He believes that he will receive it and he tells himself to be patient, even if it is delayed and he has to wait for it. He knows beyond doubt that it will come. There is an object lesson here for all of us who lay waste our energies in fighting and battling against unseen adversaries. As he trusted and believed, Habakkuk is given a sign which puts an end to all his restless strivings. The words he uses are these: "Behold his soul is puffed up, it is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith." We might translate that communica tion to read, "Let the righteous, however baffled his faith be by experience, hold on in loyalty to God and duty and he shall live." Arrogant tYranny will be des troyed. Moral steadfastness and integrity are indestructible. The clause "the just shall live by faith" is a famous one. Taken up by St Paul, and developed by Luther and others, it has become the keystone of Christian doctrine.
The prophet goes on to end his book. In two short brilliantly con trasting chapters he burst first into a taunt song of outraged humanity against the Chaldeans and then into a theophany recalling God's work in the past. And with a certainty which has at last replaced his doubt, he speaks, not only to his own people, but to humanity throughout the ages: For though the fig tree shall not blossom Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labour of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no meat; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls, Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Martin Sullivan is Dean of St Paul's
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